MICHAEL VAN GERWEN did not look his usual self during his humbling defeat to Luke Littler, claims pal and ex-pro Vincent van der Voort.
Van Gerwen, 35, was trounced 11-4 by Littler at the World Series of Darts despite having the home Amsterdam crowd on his side.
The British wonderkid, 17, won the last nine legs to book his place in the final, in which he defeated Michael Smith to take home the £80,000 prize.
Having been a friend and colleague of Van Gerwen’s for many years on the circuit, Van der Voort, 48, tried to assess where it all went wrong for his pal.
Speaking to Dutch outlet Sportnieuws, he said: “Luke played really fantastic, he didn’t miss anything and then try to turn it around.
“He just deservedly won. For Van Gerwen, there is just a lot of work to do.
“The World Series of Darts Finals is not the most important tournament on the calendar.
“Despite that, of course the disappointment is big because he comes here to win in front of his own crowd, so any other result is then a disappointment.
“You just saw that Littler was still so fresh and fit and with Van Gerwen it was just completely gone.
“This tournament just took so much energy. We do have to take the good things from this tournament.
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“We are in a process to make sure he is very, very good at the end of the year.
“Then we have to start looking at how we can address tonight’s fatigue so that in the future he won’t be so tired before a match like he was against Littler.”
Van Gerwen was unimpressed with his own display, adding: “Whether there was no spark against him? I don’t even want to say that yet.
“However, I started the match well and put him under pressure from the start.
“At that point I was in the match very well, but then I come out of that break badly, I still win the first leg, but then I completely lose and report. That’s where I seriously shortchanged myself.
“He then started playing better and better and with that my the irritation increased. I can blame myself for that.
“There is a very busy period coming up now and if I want to perform something there, this should not happen to me.
“I have to take this defeat on my chin already.”
Littler, meanwhile, laid down a warning for his rivals after beating Smith in the final.
He told PDC.TV: “This time last year I was playing on the Development Tour; my name was getting mentioned, but after the World Championship, everyone knew who I was.
“I’m going to keep building on this and winning more. It’s a busy schedule coming up and I’m ready for it.”
